A Delivery Story-Part 1

If you’ve been a mother any time at all then you’ve probably heard your share of delivery stories. From the moment you discovered you were carrying another life inside you people all around felt the need to share their personal delivery story. You can probably recite the stories from your mother, your grandmother, mother-in-law and all of your friends. My mom made natural childbirth sound like something out of a romantic comedy. The woman’s water breaks, the husband rushes off to save the world (aka my dad was stationed in Europe when I was born and he was in charge of the recovery efforts if the space shuttle crashed in Europe), and only a few short hours later the woman delivers a healthy ten-pound baby naturally, with no complications. On the other hand my mother-in-laws delivery story sounds like something out of a horror movie. She spent days in labor with my husband, no drugs and Chris’ heart stopped multiple times. Despite our differences in entering the world, my husband and I were healthy babies and didn’t seem to be traumatized by the birthing experience.

Now almost five months after delivering my son I can finally write about my own experience without cringing. My mom likes to say I had the “text book” pregnancy and delivery. I’m not sure I would go that far, but it was an unforgettable experience. I would do it a thousands time again if it meant having those first few moments back when Campbell was placed in my arms.

As Julie Andrews says it best “Let’s start at the very beginning…” Last January, only weeks after deciding to start a family, I discovered that I was pregnant. Since the day I began dreaming of starting a family I had ideas of how I would share the joyful news with my husband. I thought of sharing the news like Rebecca did to Uncle Jesse on “Full House”.  She prepared a romantic dinner that included all baby size foods; baby carrots, baby pees, etc. My romantic dreams of sharing the news didn’t go as well as I planned. Upon arriving home from work one Friday night last January, after having an inkling that I was pregnant I preceded to take a pregnancy test. I was so excited that I began to pace around our bedroom waiting for the test results to appear on the little white pee stained stick. As I walked back into the bathroom and picked up the stick I noticed the words “PREGNANT”. There is nothing than can prepare you for seeing those words staring back at you, even when you’re married and “ready” for a baby. As I calmed myself down from the shock of how quickly we conceived I began to wonder where Chris was and why he wasn’t already home. In my haste to tell him, I called his cell to encourage him to get home quickly. Well, like any good husband when their hysterical wife calls he asked me what I needed and he proceeded to try to quickly get off the phone.  I told him that he needed to get home quickly, as I needed to talk to him. Well, that was not going to suffice my curious husband. Before I knew it I was blurting out the news of my pregnancy to him over the phone. That is not at all how I imagined telling my husband. The poor guy was shocked and before I knew it I found him standing in our bedroom looking at me in shock and excitement. It was at that moment that we realized our lives would never be the same. I later learned that the reason Chris was home late that night was due to his boss drilling him about a report he had turned in moments before. Nothing like telling your husband he’s going to become a father, while his boss is yelling at him in the other ear.

Over the next few months our lives became consumed with shopping for cribs, running strollers, breast pumps, and all the other EXPENSIVE items our child would “need”. It’s amazing how one small person requires so much “junk”. As September drew near our excitement intensified and we longed for that day when we would finally meet the little person who was taking up room in my body.

At one point early on in the pregnancy I asked Chris if he wanted a son. Like any loving husband he looked me in the eyes and said “as long as the baby is healthy I don’t care what we have.” SURE!!! What guy doesn’t want a boy to carry on his legacy? Fast forward to our 20 week sonogram, it was during that appointment that I knew the importance of men having sons. Chris is not one to cry, but when the doctor told us that the baby was a boy I turned to Chris and saw tears in his eyes. It took everything in my power to say “See, you did care!” Instead I smiled and wiped my own tears away.

There are no books, web searches or advise from friends and family that can truly prepare you for pregnancy and motherhood. Every pregnancy is truly unique.  I’ll never forget that moment of true terror when standing in the shower I looked down at my feet, but instead only saw the outstretching of my extended belly button. Needless to say I was ready to go off the deep end.

As I poured over dozens of pregnancy, delivery and parenting books nothing fully prepared me for the real deal. What we didn’t plan on was Chris being questioned for murder on the day I went into labor or that Campbell would be an almost 11 pound baby.

Stay tuned to hear the rest of the story in part two of “A Delivery Story”.